Cape Town’s Beer Scene (One Minute Overview)

Food, coffee, wine and now, finally, beer is growing into an artisanal craft in Cape Town. There are lots of taprooms to visit and breweries to tour. Here is a basic overview of what you can expect from beers and breweries in Cape Town.

Your Buds, Millers and Coors lay under the guise of names like Castle, Hansa and Black Label. You’ll want to steer clear of all aforementioned brands. Plain and simple!

Cape Brewing Company, CBC, seems to have the largest distribution in the area and you’ll find their beer offered on tap in many restaurants and bars. Outside of CBC, it can be hard to find ‘craft’ beers on tap, but you will usually find at least a few bottled options. Devil’s Peak Brewing puts out their King’s BlockHouse IPA, which was one of our favorite local IPAs. In general, we were fairly underwhelmed by South African IPAs so if you are a big IPA fan, don’t expect much from the South African craft. Darling Brewery’s beers are also found throughout the city and even the whole of South Africa. You’ll also find several other options scattered throughout Cape Town’s bars and restaurants. If you are visiting Cape Town and you would like to explore some breweries, here’s where you should start:

CBC, best known for their German-style Pilsners and Weiss beers, offers you the chance to sip their freshest batch as you walk through their brewery in Paarl. This state of the art brewery was constructed in 2012 as part of the Spice Route Destination. The brewery is located in a scenic area about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town. There are lots of other craft spirits and food to try at the Spice Route so you can make a whole day out of your visit. Not to mention CBC brewery is located in a major wine producing region so, if you have a designated driver, and you want to go wine tasting after your brews, that’s always an option. We recommend stopping by Fairview wine and Cheese right down the street.

Darling is a small farm town an hour north of Cape Town and if you stumble across it, you would never guess there was a modern brewery there. You’ll enter through the center of town and continue into a deserted looking area, but at the end of a dusty road, you turn a corner right into a newly constructed brewery. It’s an easy drive from Cape Town and once you arrive you’ll be able to take your pick from indoor or outdoor seating and you can begin customizing your beer flights. Add this stop on to a day trip to Langebaan or anywhere north of Cape Town!

Located in the “up and coming” Woodstock neighborhood, this lively brewery/taproom sits at the foot of Devil’s Peak. We recommend an afternoon stop or better yet, join them for happy hour from 4pm-6pm during the week for 20% off beers. For a true experience, order their beer and food pairing for decadent little bites to accompany each beer selection.

And there you have it—short and sweet. Your one-minute overview of the beer scene in Cape Town, South Africa.

If you are looking to tour more breweries/taphouses, you may want to try: